Months before. By the time it comes around, the only thing we’re doing is calling the cab to the posh airport hotel (because fuck yeah) and bugging out.

I’m required to put in my time off requests by the first of Nov. for all of the following year. So I may not have all the details planned out, but I know what will happen when.

Rough plans at the beginning of the year, like “1 week to go to this place in July-August timeframe” so I can plan time away from work accordingly.

6+ months out for international travel for best deals on airfare.

Day of for weekend trips sometimes. Or tacking on a day or two to the end of a work trip.

Years out for sporting events. Like the 2031 rugby world cup will be hosted by the US and I plan to go to quite a few games, plans will develop as cities are picked and pool play schedules made.

For group things I don’t think it’s bonkers. Mostly because that gives everyone time to make sure that specific time to work. Honestly to me that says they really want you to come, I’d be flattered.

For just my SO and me it’s different though. Usually rough idea forms about a year out, with us formalizing and time off about 6 months out, and booking about 3 months out

I’m terrible at this. My wife is the keeper of the calendar. Idk what the fuck is going on two weeks out and I never do.

12 to 24 hours.

If I’m taking time off work and it’s more than 1 or 2 days in a row, then a minimum of 1 month in advance is required. If I’m buying a plane ticket, then at least 2 months so I can actually afford it.

I’m very last minute in planning most things in my life

My wife and I plan 6-12 month out, and sometimes more. At least for the dates of our vacations. My wife runs a small dog boarding service out of our home, and limits the number of dogs she boards. As a result she has clients that will schedule boarding up to a year in advance. So we need to block out our vacation time early enough to prevent clients from making reservations at those times.

At some point after we block out the time we’ll figure out where we want to go.

If it’s just us, it’s pretty much based on how soon we can get PTO for those days, so 1-3 months.

But coordinating a vacation with others requires you to go WAY far out and basically harass people as you continuously remind them.

Road trip? Usually week or night of.

Airline travel within 4 hours, domestic or international is usually 2 days before hand.

Airline travel across the world is usually planned as a time block a month or two ahead of time. The actual destination and activities being planned as the dates get closer.

Exceptions are scheduled events. If I have an event to attend in a location, I’ll make a hotel reservation and book tickets for the thing. Then checkup options for travel there. Sometimes it’s part of a multileg journey.

Often I don’t know where in the world I will even be the week leading up to the thing. So I tend to either not purchase travel tickets, or buy a few different ones from hubs globally that are cheap and easy to get to.

Who the hell can afford a vacation?

…vacations? In this ecconomy???

Last few years we have been booking vacations when we have big race events, to put 1 and 1 together and save money. So 1 year in advance (that’s when ironmans registrations opens up).

Back when we where only traveling, usually from Feb/march for august. Go get best deals and low tickets.

We usually go to a small holiday home my dad owns for a week or two in summer - we need to book that early in the year.

Then we do maybe one or two long shorter train trips to other European cities. More often than not that’s to see a musical theatre production, so we book those when they are announced, maybe half a year in advance. Otherwise it could be just days or weeks out!